Woman who raised thousands for Alan Barnes breaks down after being hit with £7k PR bill

Woman who raised thousands for Alan Barnes breaks down after being hit with £7k PR bill

KATIE CUTLER - the woman who raised £330,000 for a mugging victim - was reduced to tears on the This Morning sofa today as she told the story of being slapped with a £7,000 PR bill from the woman who helped publicise her good deed.

Katie, a beautician from Greenside in Tyne & Wear, became emotional as Phillip pressed her on the issue, asking if it was true that she earned £5,000 a month and that she was only fund-raising to become famous, as per Ms Barber’s comments.

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Fundraiser Katie Cutler breaks down on live TV over £7k PR scam

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Katie, 23, raised the generous sum for disabled pensioner Alan Barnes

This triggered the mother of one to begin to cry, clearly devastated that her name has been sullied following what was intended to be a good deed.

Holly said to Katie: “This has put you off doing anything like this, or fundraising, in the future, because its had such an impact on you.”

“Yes it has,” Katie replied, bursting into tears. “It’s just that I’ve done some nice things just so my little girl - when she’s old enough - will know about the nice things I’ve done.”

“And she will know!” Holly said, before finishing the segment off by sliding over to Katie and giving her a hug.

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Katie appeared on This Morning to tell Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield

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In a statement Barber, who heads her two-person agency with her daughter, said: "Katie Cutler employed Claire Barber PR to handle her PR in March 2015. We worked together for four months achieving blanket bespoke PR coverage. It was an enormous amount of work with phenomenal success.

“Katie made two payments in June 2015, then proceeded to write all over social media her shock at getting our bill (which was agreed prior to any work undertaken). At this point we offered her a payment plan, but she wouldn’t respond to anything.

“As a small family business with an impeccable reputation and after over a year and still no payment, we had no choice but to go to the small claims court. We are incredibly shocked with the way Katie has belittled our hard work and devotion to the four-month project that Katie commissioned us for."

Viewers on Twitter were sure to weigh in on the matter.

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